Chit Fai shuttered four routes last week

Minibus firm Kellis Ltd is saving two of the four Whampoa minibus routes shuttered last week over the bankruptcy of operator Chit Fai Motors.

Kellis will take over the 2 and 2A, from Kowloon Tong to Whampoa Garden in Hung Hom, after stepping in to temporarily run the routes on Chit Fai’s unexpected closure last week. The new owners have a team of 12 on the route, hiring nine of the original Chit Fai bus captains on a daily wage.

According to Yahoo! News, the new routes run less regularly, around every 20 minutes, and the service hours are shorter, yet passengers report this acceptable in the present lockdown situation.

The routes are popular with students travelling to and from Kowloon Tong, but have suffered depressed numbers lately with the recent school closures and economic slowdown and, generally, in competing against a rail extension that serves essentially the same route. The MTR’s 2016 Kwun Tong Extension, from Yau Ma Tei to Ho Man Tin and Whampoa, put Whampoa within 20 minutes of Kowloon Tong by train, against a 45-minute minibus ride in even light traffic.